SAWSO : Salvation Army World Service Office

World Service Office
Programs

HIV/AIDS &
Community Health

Microfinance

Anti-Human Trafficking

Disaster Relief

The Salvation Army World Service Office
615 Slater's Lane, P.O. Box 1428
Alexandria, VA 22313

Tel.: +1.703.684.5528

Disaster Relief

When tragedy hits a nation, especially one of the over 120 nations where The Salvation Army currently works, SAWSO is ready to step in and assist the local community to implement lasting relief, recovery and development efforts. In the 2004 Tsunami, SAWSO responded by supporting post-tsunami projects in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and India. Included in these projects was the construction of new homes for more than 2,000 families. SAWSO’s work continues in these areas to this day.

SAWSO has responded to many natural disasters and works to assist communities while supplying the most basic of needs in these devastating situations. In 2010, SAWSO responded to the earthquakes in Chile and Haiti and the floods in Australia. In 2011, SAWSO responded to earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan and will continue to work with the local Salvation Army in all of these locations to implement various health, education, recovery and development projects.

Hope in the face of danger

Hunched down over a small charcoal fire in a pathway outside her shelter, a young, pregnant mother looks after her toddler as she prepares a nutritious meal of rice and dried vegetables—staples in Haiti.

Her prepackaged meal was put together for SAWSO by Numana, a non-profit hunger relief organization headquartered in Kansas. The meals, which have directions in both Creole and English, include soy protein, vegetables, chicken bouillon, vitamins and rice. The meals have made a difference between life and death for many.

Miraculously, in the months prior to the quake Numana and SAWSO had been in the process of developing packaged meals for Haiti that would meet nutritional needs and be culturally relevant. And on January 12, 2010, more than a quarter of a million meals stood ready for shipping. Since then, over one million volunteers in locations across the United States have packaged ten million meals for quake survivors. The first food to arrive in Haiti following the quake was the 288,000 Numana meals, which were flown into Port-au-Prince and distributed with the assistance of the 82nd Airborne Division and United Nations personnel.

Initially, meals were given to all survivors under the Army’s care. Now, as life slowly returns to a semblance of normalcy, The Salvation Army provides meals to the most vulnerable population: children, pregnant and nursing mothers, the elderly and the disabled.

A supply of Numana meals are given to owners of transitional shelters provided by The Salvation Army, as part of a “housewarming” gift.